Emptiness
by RandomShortStories
Summary: Something was up with Frisk. They felt.. empty. How had past events affected them and how will Frisk react to being asked about it? Can Frisk put the past behind them, now that they can't RESET? Is there truly ever a happy ending? Frisk did everything right, but they still hadn't saved the person who deserved saving most. Was life that unfair?
1. Conversation

Hey - I can't do multi-chapter stories (as evidenced by my last one) without getting bored of them - So I'm just gonna do a few short stories on a specific subject I feel passionate about at the time of writing. Expect no OCs or continuations in any of my (future) stories and don't expect a schedule either. I do possess some basic grammar skills though.

Frisk will be referred to by gender-neutral pronouns. You can interpret that as you like.

* * *

Frisk sat there, feet hanging off of the end of their bed. They stared at the plain, cream wall about a meter away. In the center of the wall a single photograph of their friends after being freed from the Underground. They were with their friends there. Sure, Frisk kept in touch with them (It would be hard not to considering Frisk lived with Toriel) and visited Sans a few times a week but something felt... _off_. Some sort of emptiness inside them. Standing up, Frisk noted the pie on their desk; obviously put there by Toriel in the night. They grabbed the pie and ate it before getting ready for school. Even after eating the pie, Frisk still felt empty inside - Not physically but emotionally.

Frisk headed into the kitchen but upon entering Toriel noticed something strange. Frisk was making almost no expression; their eyes dull and their small, everlasting smile replaced by an almost unnoticeable frown.

"Frisk, is everything alright?" Toriel said in a part-questioning and part-worried tone

Frisk took a moment to process what Toriel had said. Once they had however, their mouth quickly formed an over-expressive smile and Frisk's eyes seemed to focus on trying to have their old, noticeable life. "Y-yeah" Frisk stuttered, surprised at the sudden question. "I'm fine Tori- Mom.." Frisk berated themselves for almost slipping up, by calling Toriel by her name and not by her title. They had always called Toriel 'Mom' but today, for whatever reason, it didn't come naturally but instead came forced. A small part of Frisk's mind was thinking about what would have happened if she called her mom 'Toriel' but instead of thinking rational thoughts, Frisk thought about hatred and fear - Being kicked out of the house, unwanted...

"If you say so, Frisk." Toriel replied slowly. Something was up with Frisk she thought - It had been getting more noticeable over the last few weeks but this was the first time Frisk looked so... disturbed. Toriel observed as Frisk grabbed their lunch and walked out the door, doing a forced wave as they left the house. Toriel was sure Frisk had said something, but had been too immersed in her worries to hear much more than Frisk saying they were all right. Something was wrong but Toriel was unable to pinpoint it. She eventually had an idea, it was Sans' turn to take Frisk home today as normally Frisk went to Sans and Papyrus' house on Wednesdays.

 ** _*Ring Ring_** *

"hey, 'sup tori?" Sans said nonchalantly over the phone

Toriel, unlike most days, was in no mood for Sans' games. "Sans, I know you're very close to Frisk but I need you to talk to them about something... serious... at your place later today, just come around my place and we'll talk." Toriel said in a demanding voice. Not a voice to be messed with.

Sans paused. This was serious. "Okay. Be right there." Sans replied, realizing that this was serious and there was no time for fun and games.

It was now lunch break at Frisk's school. Normally Frisk sat with a bunch of their friends in the dining hall, but today was different. Frisk wanted nothing to do with anyone and sat there on a bench outside, alone to their own thoughts. Frisk was rapt in thought, thinking about things such as books they had read or new television shows they had watched. But occasionally, a negative thought would come into their mind - messages of hate or sadness, the sort of thing that fueled the emptiness they had within them for the last few weeks. Frisk slowly nibbled on the packed lunch, slowly working their way through a sandwich. They were focusing on nothing and was just staring blankly at the playground in front of them, just because their eyes needed somewhere to go, not because Frisk was interested in anything. However, Frisk noticed something in the distance, their friends had left the lunch hall as were tradition in the last 15-20 minutes of lunch and seemed to be... enjoying themselves. "Of course they are" Frisk stated inside their head "I'm nothing. They probably didn't even notice I was gone. Even if they did, they obviously didn't care. If they did, they would have tried to find me." Then another thought crept into Frisk's mind "Or they did notice I was gone and were in-fact happy about it. I did free the monsters after all. The humans appeared to welcome them to the surface, even a small annual holiday was arranged around the day they had escaped as an apology to the monsters. But it was all a facade right? right?"

"Frisk!... Frisk!" said someone. Frisk took a moment to focus on the person in front of them. It was one of their friends. "The bell went, we need to go to registration." Frisk stood up, nodding slowly and started walking with their friend to registration.

"You alright? You seemed to zone out there. You know, if anything's bothering you, you can feel free to talk to us right? We didn't disturb you as you seemed to want to be alone. We figured you would come to us when you wanted to talk" Frisk's friend said.

Frisk quickly looked at them, nodded quickly and tried to force another smile. Frisk's mind seemed to fight with itself, part of it arguing that Frisk had worried their friends for no reason and part of them arguing that their friends to care but wanted Frisk to talk on Frisk's terms, not theirs." It didn't matter what Frisk's mind was arguing about though - neither side helped stop the emptiness slowly consuming them.

The day was finally over. Frisk was exiting the school as they found Sans in the distance, near the entrance to the forest, like always. Slowly but purposely, Frisk walked over to Sans, forcing a smile for the third time that day.

"hey kiddo." Sans said as Frisk walked towards him "come this way, i know a shortcut" Ever since Sand had started picking Frisk up from school, him and Frisk would walk down the forest trail enough to ensure nobody could see them and they would just teleport into Sans' house. Today followed the same schedule but Frisk wasn't up for conversation, which was weird as they normally could speak for days on end about things they were doing such as a book they were reading or a new science experiment they were working on. But Frisk was eerily quiet today, too quiet.

Frisk noticed Sans walk past the spot where they normally 'ported out of the woods and watched as he walked into a more dense part of the forest. Frisk ran to catch up before going to question Sans. "Hey.. uh Sans? where are we goi-"

"Here." Sans replied in a more serious tone than normal. "Sit down. You and I need to talk."

Frisk's eyes went wide. "What have I done?" Frisk mentally said, running through the options of why Sans would be mad at them. They hadn't RESET, like promised, they had done all their homework on time and behaved in lessons... the list went on but Frisk could not figure out what the talk was about.

"Frisk. Don't look at me like that and sit down." Sans said sternly. "I can tell something's up, Toriel can tell something's up and I even talked to one of your friends and even they said something was up." Sans continued speaking. He did not want to be the one to do this but he knew that Toriel wouldn't be able to do it and he didn't trust Papyrus or Undyne to be sensible, Alphys would be too nervous and Asgore was always busy, being the old leader of the monsters after all. "So tell me. What's on your mind?"

"N-nothing, Sans! Just not feeling we-" Frisk tried to say before being cut off by Sans' glare, a glare that could stop even the strongest person in their tracks.

"Don't lie to me Frisk. I hate this as much as you do, but I need to know the truth." Sans was nearly yelling at this point, thankfully they were too far away for anyone to hear his yelling.

Frisk took a step back, knowing that they had no escape from this - No MERCY or FIGHT options, just talk. "Well... You sure are 'determined' to find out aren't you?" Frisk tried to say confidently but what came out was a voice full of fear.

Sans sighed. "Look kid, I don't want to do this either. But if you dodge the question one more time..." Sans breathed in " _ **You're going to have a bad time.**_ **"** Sans' eyes went dark for a second, the phrase rolling off of his tongue from what appeared to be muscle memory but he hadn't ever said it to Frisk. At least in this timeline. He didn't mean to say it either, but it came out without thinking.

Frisk stopped. Frisk's eyes froze in place, their heartbeat slowed and they didn't dare to move any arms or legs. Eventually, they spoke "You want to know what's wrong that much? That you'll threaten me with death to try and get it out of me?" Frisk stood up, looking down at the shorter skeleton. " **You'll fucking get it."** Frisk yelled, not loud enough for anybody but them and Sans to hear it but loud enough that it, along with the sudden swearing, frightened Sans. "You see, Sans... It started when I woke up in the Underground." Frisk seemed to have calmed down now, but Sans was sat there, silent, afraid of angering Frisk again. "I didn't remember anything before I fell. I still don't. I didn't even know my real name. I got up and started to walk and I saw a golden flower. It told me about my SOUL and LOVE, that is before it tried to murder me..." Frisk paused to breathe, tears forming at the back of their eyes. "I was scared, Sans. For the first time in the Underground, I thought I was gonna die and that would be it... A child killed who's only memories are of the last 30 seconds of their life. Pathetic, isn't it?" Frisk forced a laugh. "A child getting killed by a flower - The only speaking thing this child would ever remember would be this flower." Frisk paused for breath, looking at how Sans was both listening intently and still afraid of angering Frisk again. "Toriel saved me of course. She showed me how to operate the RUINS, taught me about puzzles and even fed me in exchange for a small promise - Any enemies I met I were to talk to and try to SPARE. If I couldn't spare then RUN." Frisk paused for breath. Sans went to say something but Frisk interrupted before Sans could speak "I eventually left the RUINS, and met you. _Sans._ And then I met Papyrus. Once I reached Snowdin, I immediately went to the inn. If I could sleep then the next morning I wouldn't be so shaken up right? I may even remember something. I slept that night but in my dreams I saw someone... smiling at me. I remember seeing this person killing Toriel, Papyrus and I remember a large hall, you standing in the middle and this strange person in front of you. You said to the person "do you wanna have a bad time?" before stating "cause if you take another step forward..." I woke up in a cold sweat. The visions of hundreds of monsters leaving nothing but dust behind haunting my thoughts." Frisk stopped and started to quietly sob. Frisk sat down and pulled their knees up to their face, hiding from Sans.

Sans was silent - What could he say or do to comfort Frisk? He got up and shook Frisk "Hey, kid. Let's get out of this forest and to my room, we can continue this there. And if it means anything at this point... Sorry."

Frisk looked up before slowly rising to their feet. The adrenaline that was at one point pumping through their veins was now replaced by sorrow. Frisk grabbed Sans and shut their eyes. Upon re-opening their eyes, Frisk noticed that they were both in Sans' room.

Sans beckoned Frisk to sit on the mattress with him. Frisk obliged and sat down with him. "Hey, Frisk, if you don't want to continue this today we can do thi-"

Frisk cut him off "No. I've told you this much. I'll finish it." Frisk said, more quiet this time. "Nothing much happened from there, I died a few times and fought Undyne, met Alphys and the standard. However, when I encountered Asgore and everyone turned up to stop the fight, **that bastard,** Flowey, had absorbed everyone's souls. All 6 of the human souls and every single monster soul. The power of the souls turned him into a god. It turned him into Asriel." Frisk stopped, questioning whether they should say what comes next before deciding it was for the best if they did "I fought him. Asriel. The lost son of Toriel and Asgore. The one who rescued the first fallen human, only to get betrayed by them afterwards. It was a long battle, it got to the point where I was determined enough to outright refuse to die, but he didn't die either. We were both stuck until I noticed instead of talking, I could SAVE you all instead. I talked to your souls and you all started to come back to normal... but I needed to save Asriel... I failed." Frisk paused. "Here I am, savior of the monsters, ambassador of the underground yet I'm still a failure." Frisk began to sob again, louder this time "The first few months were alright. Everyone was happy but the guilt of knowing that Toriel and Asgore's son was still alive and I was keeping it to myself... It slowly ate away at my conscience. I started to blame myself for everything, I started to lose hope. And then I lost it. There was nothing left in me but an empty shell of a body. I was a shadow of who I used to be, because I knew deep at my heart... **I was a failure and that's how I would s-**

Sans slapped Frisk. "Snap out of it!" Sans yelled, directly at Frisk "You're not a failure. You saved everyone. Not us, **You.** "

"I didn't save them... Asriel was the one who ope" Frisk tried to respond but was quickly cut off

"Frisk. It's not worth worrying about it." Sans hated being serious, but in times like these, it was required. Now that Frisk was obviously more stable and had got the word out, he can work on helping them. But for now... "Hey, wanna come to Grillby's?"

Frisk looked up confused as Sans reached out his hand towards them. Frisk grabbed the hand and went to pull themselves up when suddenly a low _pffft came from Sans' hand._

Both Frisk and Sans started laughing Hysterically as they walked the short distance to Grillby's.

* * *

Jeez - That was heavy to write. I went into this thinking about how it would be short and unsure of how it would end - But here we are.

If you spot any mistakes (such as me calling Frisk a s/he) or any spelling / grammar errors feel free to point them out to me.


	2. Lost and Wounded

Hey. It's Frisk.

So look, you've probably figured out I'm not at school by now.

I've gone somewhere else. Don't try to follow me.

Please.

Sans picked up the note that was hidden under Frisk's pillow. Toriel had called them earlier after Frisk's school called her asking where they were. It had been a few weeks since Sans had their chat with Frisk, but obviously it hadn't sunk in. Sans started teleporting to places they thought Frisk could be but to no avail.

Frisk had been running for almost a full day now. They didn't know where they were, their feet hurt and they hadn't eaten in hours. As they ran, the smell of the sea gradually grew greater. Eventually, Frisk reached the edge of a cliff, with the sea crashing against the rocks below. They didn't know where they had run to, but Frisk was pretty sure they had gone west of Ebott. Regardless, the sun was beginning to set and the sea being nearby didn't exactly help with the heat issue. Luckily, Frisk had brought some food, a small tent and a sleeping bag with them. In the morning, they would look for a part-time job to get some money to stay in a hotel. Frisk set up and slowly let the sleep devour them.

-6:45AM-Frisk-

"Ugh..." Frisk sat up. Their body hurt all over. Turns out camping in the middle of a rocky field with nothing but a sleeping bag and a thin sheet between them and the ground wasn't very comfortable. The sound of their alarm was ringing through their head painfully, getting louder by the second. Frisk eventually managed to turn off their phone, along with their alarm. Frisk grabbed a snack and started repacking.

-7:25AM-Sans/Toriel-

Neither Sans or Toriel had slept at all since Frisk had left, almost 24 hours ago. The major news sites were starting to report the disappearance of the ambassador between monsters and humans. There were various rumors about why they were missing, but nobody knew the true reasons apart from Sans and Toriel, not even Frisk's closest friends knew. The rumors ranged from kidnapping to a "monster plot to declare war on the humans, claiming their savior was killed"... Sans could hardly believe that one. Luckily, only one newspaper commented on it, stating how ridiculous that would be. Toriel had been in contact with the police for several hours now, but the last known location of Frisk was reported almost 16 hours ago, and that was from CCTV recovered from 6 hours before it was reported. Their only lead was that Frisk had headed south-west of Ebott.

-7:25AM-Papyrus/Undyne/Alphys/etc...-

The room was tense. Everybody was looking at each other, wondering who'd be brave enough to speak first. Thankfully, Asgore finally stepped up to speak.

"Frisk saved us from our prison in the UNDERGROUND, so it should therefore be up to us to SAVE them from whatever has caused them to do this" Agreeing murmurs resounded across the audience. Despite having ruled the monsters for hundreds of years, everybody could tell Asgore was having trouble speaking in front of everyone. The situation had affected everyone. The audience stayed silent for the next few minutes, nobody willing to say anything else. Over time, more and more of the crowd spoke about Frisk, what they had done for them and how they will try and help find them. The room went silent again when sudden footsteps were heard from around the hall.

Sans and Toriel busted crashed through the door, scaring everyone and almost hitting Asgore on the way in. Silence fell upon the room, everyone staring at the sudden disturbance.

"We found Frisk."

-8:35-Frisk-Missing for 25 hours-

Frisk checked their phone, ignoring all the calls and texts from everyone asking them to come back. They couldn't. They couldn't look at Papyrus any longer. They couldn't look at Toriel. They couldn't look at Asgore. They couldn't look at anything without feeling the looming emptiness. They had finally figured out why they felt empty. Everyone had a happy ending, excluding one. Everybody had a happy ending except from the person who deserved it most...

THUMP

Frisk looked up, surprised by the sudden intrusion to their thoughts. They had walked into a pole whilst distracted by themselves. They shook themselves out of their trance and continued checking their phone. They checked their social media, looking at Papyrus' page, to get some of the humor they were used to from his page. They found something disturbing.

"WE FOUND FRISK!"

[Posted 8s ago]

Frisk swore. They had been careful to avoid cameras, who had seen them? They refreshed the page to try and see if Papyrus had posted more information, but found the post deleted.

Panic set in. Frisk started running. They didn't know where, but the further they got from their last known location, the better. They kept checking their phone, hoping to find out where they were seen, but the phone's screen eventually went black. Frisk tried to turn the device back on, but to no avail. They had forgotten to bring a portable charger. Frisk kept running. People looked at them, slight recognition on their faces, but Frisk ran by too fast for anyone to connect the dots between them. They started running faster, faster than their mind could comprehend. Frisk had to get away, and fast. Frisk was still running along the cliffside, no concern for their safety as they continued running at full pelt. Too fast to notice that rock poking out from the ground. Too fast to break their fall. Frisk's vision went black.

-?:?-?-Missing for ? hours-

"It sounds like it came over here..."

"Oh, You've fallen down haven't you?

"Are you okay?"

"Here, get up... ... "

"I don't like this idea..."

"We'll free everyone"

"My time's running out"

"have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

"it's a beautiful day outside..."

"W-WELL, THAT'S NOT WHAT I EXPECTED... BUT... ST... STILL! I BELIEVE IN YOU! YOU CAN DO A LITTLE BETTER! EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK SO!"

-09:05-Frisk-Missing for 25.5 hours-

Frisk was in pain. In their struggle to catch themselves but failing, they faceplanted, causing blood to cover their nose and some of their face and managed to fall on one of their arms, which now hurt beyond belief. They sat up, pushing with their good arm to inspect the damage. Whilst their arm didn't appear to be broken, it definitely was damaged, the blood running down it proved that. They stumbled onto their feet and continued walking, woefully unprepared. They hadn't even bought bandages. Luckily, their hoodie did a good enough job of hiding the blood on their arm and they had to clean their face with some leaves lying around.

-10:35-Sans/Toriel/Asgore-Missing for 27 hours-

They had finally arrived at Frisk's last known location. Asgore used his booming voice to yell Frisk's name out the window as they began to drive up and down the shore. No luck. Both Sans and Toriel looking around, looking for any signs of Frisk's whereabouts, whilst Asgore was on driving duty.

Something caught the corner of Sans' eye "Asgore, pull over. i think i found something." Sans jumped out of the car and inspected the area. A rock was protruding from the ground, with some blood visible slightly behind it. Whoever was here obviously had quite a bad fall. Besides the ground was a phone, which had obviously been damaged by the fall, with the screen heavily cracked. The phone was familiar. Too familiar. Sans continued inspecting the phone and noticed a red heart engraved onto the bottom right of the phone's back. This was Frisk's phone. But why was it here?

-10:55-Toriel/Sans/Asgore/Frisk?-Missing for 27 hours-

Frisk had slowed down significantly. Their arm hurt with every movement and their legs were getting tired after so much running.

"FRISK" Asgore continued shouting outside the window. Sans was still awake, trying to get into Frisk's phone, trying various PIN codes. Toriel had fallen asleep, with the assurance from Sans that they'll keep looking whilst she was asleep.

"0...8...0...6" Sans said slowly as he entered yet another potential PIN code, expecting it to fail when he finally got in. Why he hadn't figured it out, he didn't know - That was the date Frisk had rescued all the monsters. They started looking through their files, looking for any reason for running away, until they encountered a text file.

08:35 - Now marks 24 hours since I ran. I feel so... empty inside. I need to escape from here, somewhere I'm not as recognised. I just want to forget about everything.

08:42 - They found me. I don't know how, but Sans, Toriel and the others found me. I need to get out of here as quick as I can. I left behind one person in the UNDERGROUND who deserved happiness the most. Why couldn't I save him? I tried countless times. Since destroying the barrier, the magic inside of it slowly escaped. That magic made DETERMINATION work as it did, allowing me to SAVE and LOAD. I can't do any of that anymore. The magic has spread out so thin that I can't SAVE or LOAD. I wanted to end the cycle forever and just continue onwards, but I can't stop thinking of him. He deserves freedom much more than I do. I can't RESET and I don't plan to, but if I can get far enough away, maybe I can settle somewhere else and try to get back to a normal life.

08:55 - Ȉ̪̗̳̦ͬ͆ͅͅǹ̴͕̘̾̋̔͑ ̥̠̖̙̰̒͌̕ͅt̷̔̿͑ĥ̭͎͖̳̰̞̜iͩ̈́̋ͣ͏̰̞͍s̳̖̬͎̳̞̔͑̚ͅ ̺w̳̲̐̑ȯ̳̞͔͈͕͐ͦ͂̉̿r͈̭͖̦ͩ̒̒ͧ͢ḽ̡̞͍ͨ̏d̶̳̬͉̻̥̀̽͆.̡͔̠̖̣͙͗̾́̇.̴̲̠̉̇̔ͪ.͉͇͖̩͖͓͑͊̐ ͕̺ͧI͋̅ͣ͆̎̆̓͜t͙̉ͬ̿ͅ'̸̘̠̤̩̝ͭs͉͙̲̹̠ͨ͜ ̰̟̑͊͑ͫͮ͝K͉̮͉̩͔̉͊͠ͅI̷̩̟̜͖̥͑͑̃L͙̠̀̓̊ͮ͑͂L͚̖̥̯̖̥̻̈̒͋̈̎ͪ͘ ̩͌̾ͨͬ̉o͑̔͋҉̙̼̱͎͉̫̯r̷ ̻̝͚͙̞̖ͦ̀̊̉B͙̰̹̼̟̃̏Ë̹̱̫̃̒̏ ͎̗͎̤̞̦͗̌ͨ̈̽̃͆k̜̻̺̓i̮̥ͣ̂̽ľ̂̌͟l̙̪̖̫̹̜͔ͮ̂͋̆ȇ͔̹̲̖̣ͣͭͮ̾̔d͎̘͚̺͍͍̅ͣ

Sans couldn't read what was written on the last one. It appeared the file had been corrupted at some point.

Frisk heard a car driving past. They looked up at the noise and saw someone familiar. Sans and Frisk locked eyes.

"Asgore pull over!" "'Tori! Wake up! Come on!"

Frisk started running as fast as they could. They stopped looking where they were going, until they looked up and saw Sans' faltering smile and his cold dark eyes. Frisk stopped on the spot to avoid trying to run into Sans.

"So that's what you think huh?"

Frisk looked down in shame.

"Are we that bad?"

Frisk started "Oh..? No?"

"You "Just want to forget about everything" huh?"

Frisk immediately grabbed for where their phone was, confused as to how Sans read their journal of the escape.

"Looking for this?" Sans held up Frisk's phone. Frisk's eyes only widened further.

At this point, Frisk finally broke down sobbing. So many emotions compacted over several hours all came out at once. They had seen so much, but so little. They were put through something no person should have to do, not once but hundreds of times. They had to act strong. "For them. You must be strong for them." Frisk constantly reminded themselves - Not allowing their true feelings to come out. Ever since Frisk's conversation with Sans a few weeks ago, they had been trying harder than ever before to not let their feelings surface.

Sans looked at the child, slowly breaking down infront of them. He didn't know what to do.

"hey kiddo, let's just go home, okay?" Sans said, patting Frisk's arm. Bad idea.

Frisk screamed in pain. The pain that had seemingly dumbed down earlier came back in full force. Frisk managed to cry out "I... Fell... on that... arm... earlier... It, uh, still... hurts. Bad."

Sans, yet again, didn't know what to do. So he did what he did whenever times got tough. Said bad puns. "Kid, maybe you should consider wearing some ARMor?"

Frisk's mood had brightened slightly. They followed Sans back to the car, everyone was too tired to question them just yet.

-13:35-Sans/Frisk-30 hours since escape.

"So, kid." Sans' eyes went dim. This was never a good sign. "Why?"

 **Author Note**

 **Sorry. This took a long time to come out. This chapter alone took several hours to write over several days.**

 **This story deals with some important topics, such as depression. If you feel like you're depressed at all, try to talk to someone. I will try and read all PMs sent to me. If nobody else is, I'll try and be here for you.**


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